These Mini Carrot Cheesecake Trifles are made with delightful layers of carrot cake, no bake cheesecake, toasted pecans, and homemade whipped cream. Simple to make, single-serve portions, and perfect for your Easter gathering!
In my family when it’s Thanksgiving, there better be apple pie. During Christmas, a big old platter of cookies better be present. But when it’s Easter, there better be carrot cake. Nothing else will do!
Over the past Easters, I’ve made a fancy two-layer carrot cake that looked like I bought it from a bakery, but I’ve kept it simple with a one bowl carrot cake. This year, I wanted something different. That’s where this little brainchild came about.
I’ve been big into making my desserts fit into jars lately like these red velvet cupcakes and these chocolate peppermint cupcakes in jars. Why not follow this concept for my Easter show-stopping dessert this year? When everyone gets to have their own little jar, there is something about it that just feels special. It’s like your own cupcake, but even better because there is this awesome layered thing going on.
Mini Carrot Cheesecake Trifles Recipe
Layers of carrot cake, no bake cheesecake, toasted pecans, and homemade whipped cream. Every bite with all these layers. Move over Christmas. Easter just took center stage.
To make these little trifles in a jar, you first need to start with this easy one bowl carrot cake. Yup, one bowl. It’s a simple recipe because it’s made with vegetable oil (which also keeps it moist!). Simply combine your sugar, eggs, and oil in one bowl with a whisk. Then add in your dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt – then stir in your shredded carrots.
Here is a tip for the best carrot cake: Shred your carrots by hand!
If you use your food processor, the carrots can become too small and mushy. Always shred them by hand! I promise it won’t take long. You need two cups, which for me was about 4 large carrots.
You will bake this cake in a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. To make your paper stick, spray it first with non-stick cooking spray. This cake bakes quickly in 25 minutes so it’s a cinch to throw together! You want to bake this in a sheet pan so you can cut out little circles of cake that will fit perfectly into your little jars.
While the cake is baking, prepare your no-bake cheesecake. This cheesecake is also super easy. Are you sensing a theme here? To make it, all you need to do is mix two packages of softened cream cheese, one can of condensed milk, and a little bit of vanilla extract. That’s it! Use your stand mixer or hand mixer to make the process even quicker.
Then it’s on to the whipped cream. For this dessert, I made stabilized whipped cream. Stabilized whipped cream is basically whipped cream with a bit of gelatin added to it so that it holds up better and doesn’t melt on you right away. You want to start by combining your cold heavy cream, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar into a clean stand mixer bowl with your whisk attachment and mix until soft peaks form. While it’s mixing, prepare your gelatin. All you need to do is sprinkle a little gelatin powder in some cold water and let sit for five minutes, then microwave for about 10 seconds to dissolve it. You will add this mixture, once cooled, to your stand mixer and mix until combined. I used this whipped cream for my Bailey’s Chocolate Cream Pie and it held beautifully for days!
I wanted a little crunch to top off this dessert so I decided to toast some pecans. Now you can choose to do this with walnuts, or simply omit them all together, but I love my desserts to have a bit of texture to them. To toast your pecans, simply bake the pecans for eight minutes on a cookie sheet in a 350ºF preheated oven. Afterwards, simply put them in a plastic bag and smash them with a meat tenderizer.
To layer the dessert, I cut circles out of my cake using a small 2-inch round circle cutter. Then in the jars, I layered carrot cake, cheesecake, whipped cream, and toasted pecans. Then repeat. Layers upon layers of carrot cake goodness.
This dessert is surprisingly light. Carrot cake can sometimes be a dense dessert, but the cheesecake and whipped cream really lighten up the whole thing. You will be devouring these jars before you know it.
Ingredients
- 2 cups Sugar
- 1 cup Vegetable Oil
- 4 whole Eggs
- 2 cups All-purpose Flour
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
- 2 cups Grated Carrots
- 2 8-oz packages of cream cheese
- 1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups cold heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon powdered gelatin
- 1/4 cup cold water
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Mix together the sugar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl. In the same bowl add your flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Stir to combine. Then add carrots and walnuts and mix well. Pour into a half sheet pan that has been lined with parchment paper and bake at 350ºF until done, about 25 minutes.
- When done, place on a cooling rack to cool. When cooled, take a 2-inch round cutter and cut out 24 rounds.
- Using an electric mixer, set at medium-high speed, beat the cream cheese in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the condensed milk a little at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl, as necessary. Beat in the vanilla.
- Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let it bloom for 5 minutes.
- Add the sugar and vanilla to the whipping cream .
- Once the gelatin has bloomed, microwave it until it's dissolved. This took only 10-20 seconds for me. The mixture will be very hot so be sure to allow to cool before adding to your heavy cream mixture. While whipping the cream, slowly add the gelatin to the cream.
- Beat in a mixer with a whisk until soft or stiff peaks form. Refrigerate until ready to use.
- Place the pecans on a cookie sheet and toast for 8-10 minutes in a preheated 350ºF oven. Chop once toasted.
- In your 8-ounce mason jars, layer one cake round, about 2 tablespoons cheesecake, 2 tablespoons whipped cream, top with toasted pecans if you like, and repeat for a second layer. Be sure to cover these and refrigerate. These will be good for about 3 days. Freeze if you are not using right away, and then thaw before eating.
Notes
Home Chef Tip: Shred your carrots by hand! Using a food processor might be quicker, but the carrots can get too mushy this way!
We hope you love this Mini Carrot Cheesecake Trifles recipe from SoFabFood Contributor, Heather from Boston Girl Bakes, as much as we do. If you enjoyed this delightful recipe, be sure to stop by our Desserts section to find more like it. For daily recipe inspiration, like us on Facebook and visit us on Pinterest because we have a lot of fantastic dessert recipes there too. Enjoy!
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